Concert Review: Daniel Bolshoy at Leacock Theatre, Mount Royal University

By Guest on September 2, 2011 in Canadian Concert Reviews, Guest Posts

This post is by Calgary contributor Murray Visscher
from a series of posts pertaining to Guitarfestwest

Daniel Bolshoy
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
Leacock Theatre, Mount Royal University

For the closing concert of Guitarfestwest 2011, Calgary was treated to an intimate evening with Canadian guitarist Daniel Bolshoy. Daniel may be considered a fresh face in Western Canada’s classical guitar landscape, having moved to Vancouver just this summer, but he is no stranger in Calgary, having performed here several times in the last few years. Too many return trips may take their toll on some performer’s audience appeal, but Daniel’s honest interpretations and sincere public rapport brought aficionados out in numbers, drawing the largest crowd of the three Guitarfestwest concerts. With confident performances and a warm oral delivery that feels like trading stories with an old family friend, it’s easy to see why Daniel’s popularity is rising at the international level.

Photo via Mount Royal Facebook Page (click to visit)

The evening’s appetizer was an entire first half dedicated to Spanish composer/guitarist Eduardo Sainz de la Maza. Opening with the “Platero y Yo Suite”, a set of five little gems, Mr. Bolshoy walked the audience through the range of emotions that he would continue to explore throughout the evening. Daniel’s care with phrasing and clarity of line made it easy to travel with him from humour to grief and back in a very short time. The six pieces that followed were a testament to Sainz de la Maza’s versatility as a composer and Bolshoy’s skill as a performer. I believe the composer would have appreciated the performer’s work right from “Evocacion Criolla”, where Mr. Bolshoy effortlessly coaxed a long, singing melody out of a sizzling arpeggio line, to the famous “Campanas del Alba”, executed with a killer clean, jaw-dropping tremolo that left the audience buzzing into the lobby for intermission.

Showing no concern for those critics who bash standard repertoire, Bolshoy opened the second half with two of the most popular guitar pieces ever written, Agustin Barrios Mangore’s “Una limosna por el amor de dios” and “La Catedral”. A performer needs to have a confident execution to program pieces known so well by so many, and Daniel’s performance did not disappoint. He managed to capture emotional range in a brilliant technical display that left the many guitarists in the audience ready to either learn or review these two iconic works.

After easing the audience into the 21st century with an engaging interpretation of “Aurore Boreal”, by Canadian composer Patrick Roux, Daniel got to the main course of the program, the World Premiere of “Next Year” by Michael Karmon. Like the evening’s opening piece, “Next Year” is a set of five short pieces, described by the composer as “..elemental, but strange and unsettled and infused with a sense of duality, just like (Israel)..” The performance was elegant, and the pieces rich with tasty contrast of rhythm and harmony, making for a set that will likely become popular program fare in a short time. Dessert was provided in the form of four short pieces, “An Idea” by Leo Brouwer, and “Eli’s Portrait”, “Valseana” and “Preludio e toccatina” by Sergio Assad. After a short encore of Barrios’ “Julia Florida”, Daniel gave several curtain calls to a standing house.

I think Calgary is pretty happy to officially welcome Daniel Bolshoy to our neighborhood.

-Murray Visscher

Guitarfestwest 2011 posts: